This painting depicts associated with the rockhole site of Marrapinti, west of the Pollock Hills in Western Australia. In ancestral times a group of women of the Nanglala and Napangati...
This painting depicts associated with the rockhole site of Marrapinti, west of the Pollock Hills in Western Australia. In ancestral times a group of women of the Nanglala and Napangati kinship subsections camped at this site during their travels towards the east. While at the site the women made nose bones, also known as marrapinti, which are worn through a hole made in the nose web. During ceremonies relating to Marrapinti the older women pierced the nasal septums of the younger women who were participating in the ceremony. Nose bones were originally used by both men and women but are now only inserted by the older generation on ceremonial occasions. Upon completion of the ceremonies at MArrapinti the women continued their travels east, passing through Wala Wala, Ngaminya and Wirrulnga bfore heading north-east to Wilkinkarra (Lake Mackay).